Escrow.com from king to amateur!

[BrandChimp]

I used to LOVE escrow.com for the transaction speed and customer support.

However, my last two transactions were not so good.

First one, everything was find except I have been waiting for more than 2 weeks to get my money.

Second one, buyer sent the payment 7 days ago and we did selected 1 day verification... However, nothing as been done yet.

I asked to cancel the last transaction asap as we will use a more serious service.


What I have learned from this...

DON"T LISTEN TO YOUR HEART, LISTEN THE RECENT REVIEWS

 

[Asfas1000]

seriously, try epik.com

Epik may not be the angels you think. Are you aware of this story ?

 

[Kuffy]

Oh dear - I liked escrow.com - nice name as well.

I started to look at multi-signed Bitcoin payments a while ago, they seemed to offer a really good form of escrow. Now that segwit is here, I may revisit that. The other one that I looked at was Payoneer, I might give that a try if I sell a name.

 

[kemjika11]

You guys should just suggest alternative .enough of this escrow poor service

ecop.com

 

[LucidDomains]

Did the original guys who made escrow.com go off and make another escrow company?

 

[soannoyed]

I was happy to hear that Payoneer has introduced an escrow service.

I have not tried it just yet but would be keen to give it a shot.

Has anyone tried them yet? Any feedback?

The former owner of Escrow.com, Brandon Abbey, joined with Armour Payments , and now Payoneer joined forces with them.
I want to use but need to figure out how to implement the API.

 

[FairTrial]

At Transpact.com, Europe's leading escrow company, we continue to handle many, many domain transactions from around the world.

Lowest cost, potentially the most secure, nearly always the fastest, word of mouth means our customers use our service for every transaction as our service is simple, efficient and just works.

For the last eight years we have never really tried to market ourselves hard in the domain space, since until recently the Escrow.com brand was treated religiously by some commentators - with mention of any other escrow service cause for outrage.

But attitudes seem to be changing.

[Disclaimer - I work for Transpact.com - but it is a great company]

 

[joro001]

I was a vocal critic from day 1 on escrow's takeover even though they hadn't yet gone downhill but I knew it would happen. First Brandon Abbey going was a disaster for unexplained reasons but clearly wasn't compatible with Freelancer. Then getting in hopeless staff, who clearly for some of them English isn't their first language and scripted responses to any inquiry. Now plenty of horror stories are coming out.

I knew this was all going to happen because Freelancer bought out the warrior forum and destroyed it almost immediately in similar fashion. Sacking all the old unpaid mods who did a great job for years without even having the courtesy to inform them before taking away their roles, bringing a ton of useless spammy contributors from certain countries flooding good threads with garbage, constant changes to the site like the feed which is awful, constant login issues etc. etc.

Sad!

 

[Jackson Elsegood]

First one, everything was find except I have been waiting for more than 2 weeks to get my money.

Second one, buyer sent the payment 7 days ago and we did selected 1 day verification... However, nothing as been done yet.

Hi Xavier,
Jumping in here to respond to the original comments:
Your first transaction was selected to be disbursed via US mail check, which takes the longest to reach you. If you haven't received the check yet let's cancel it and disburse the funds via a faster method (ACH or Wire Transfer), feel free to reach me via email which I've PM'd to you.

In your latest transaction, I can see that your buyer's PayPal payment hasn't been accepted. I've asked our Chinese language support to reach out to them to see if they can use a different funding source.

Cheers,
Jackson Elsegood
General Manager, Escrow.com

 

[Jackson Elsegood]

Escrow will soon be implementing a new policy to get photo ID, and proof of address from every registered buyer/seller for all transactions. If all systems are not a go, this will really bottleneck all transactions, as it is hard enough to get buyers to accept to start the inspection period after they get the name.

As a licensed escrow company, we're always bound by the law and compliance obligations, which include the need to be able to identify parties in the transaction. Escrow.com is not alone in this as banks, insurance companies, and almost every other financial institution fall under these 'Know Your Customer' requirements.

I won't foreshadow any releases, but any account verification process will be designed to be able to be completed quickly by anyone in the world, and accepted just as fast.

Which new banking laws are you referring to?

Several sources include Know Your Customer procedures, one is FinCEN
https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2016/02/07/fincen-know-your-customer-requirements/

Jackson Elsegood
General Manager, Escrow.com

 

[soannoyed]

As a licensed escrow company, we're always bound by the law and compliance obligations, which include the need to be able to identify parties in the transaction. Escrow.com is not alone in this as banks, insurance companies, and almost every other financial institution fall under these 'Know Your Customer' requirements.

I won't foreshadow any releases, but any account verification process will be designed to be able to be completed quickly by anyone in the world, and accepted just as fast.



Several sources include Know Your Customer procedures, one is FinCEN


Jackson Elsegood
General Manager, Escrow.com

Thanks for joining the discussion, Jackson.
What's onerous is when transactions are already completed for Escrow to spring this on consumers.
It seems akin to someone selling a house, the buyer receiving title to the house, but the Real Estate Agency holding the money in an escrow account, then suddenly asking for more id and refusing to release to the seller.
Seriously, buyers aren't going to send so much private ID info to random support people.

Additionally, how was this new policy shared with Escrow.com customers ?

If consumers aren't alerted before starting transactions, I am not even sure this complies with consumer disclosure laws for California.

And at no point did Brandon Abbey implement this requirement. And the old Escrow.com ran perfectly.
Seems curious to spring this on people now ?
Is it because of your enhanced support of Chinese consumers ? (Not knocking China, just know they are scrutinized more)

Flippa's Escrow already has an in house Escrow that clearly states what is required of buyers and sellers beforehand.
Can you explain the advantage of using Escrow.com now that there are extra steps for buyers to use your service ?

Also you stated "I won't foreshadow any releases, but any account verification process will be designed to be able to be completed quickly by anyone in the world, and accepted just as fast"

1. You already have the verification page up at escrow D0T com /verify

2. Completed by anyone in the world ? Not really, as the ids accepted and proof of address are very limited in scope.
Plus you are asking for people to share all the photo id and home address documents with complete strangers. Are people allowed to redact sensitive info ?
Really doesn't seem easy to verify and will kill a lot of sales.

Too bad.

Thanks

 

[Jackson Elsegood]

Thanks for joining the discussion, Jackson.
What's onerous is when transactions are already completed for Escrow to spring this on consumers.
Additionally, how was this new policy shared with Escrow.com customers ?

If consumers aren't alerted before starting transactions, I am not even sure this complies with consumer disclosure laws for California.

And at no point did Brandon Abbey implement this requirement. And the old Escrow.com ran perfectly.
Seems curious to spring this on people now ?
Is it because of your enhanced support of Chinese consumers ? (Not knocking China, just know they are scrutinized more)

Flippa's Escrow already has an in house Escrow that clearly states what is required of buyers and sellers beforehand.
Can you explain the advantage of using Escrow.com now that there are extra steps for buyers to use your service ?

Thanks

Just to clarify, this has not been implemented for transactions so this won't be sprung on anyone.

In the past Escrow.com has requested additional identification from individual users to verify that they are not in a sanctioned country, which we continue to do. https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/Programs/Pages/Programs.aspx

Flippa is one of our brokerage partners and we work together on a great deal of transactions together. The core differences between our service and other providers are:
(1) Escrow.com works with all marketplaces and private sales, which means you do not incur the marketplace fees if you have found your buyer already
(2) Escrow.com is a licensed escrow provider, which means you know your funds are held in a non-interest bearing trust account and are not being used to run the company or invest on the market (PayPal uses user balances in this way)
(3) Escrow.com guarantees your payment against credit card chargebacks, meaning that if your buyer later claims that they never received the domain and try to pull their funds back we will face this chargeback on your behalf

Hope this helps,
Jackson

 

[soannoyed]

Just to clarify, this has not been implemented for transactions so this won't be sprung on anyone.

In the past Escrow.com has requested additional identification from individual users to verify that they are not in a sanctioned country, which we continue to do.

Flippa is one of our brokerage partners and we work together on a great deal of transactions together. The core differences between our service and other providers are:
(1) Escrow.com works with all marketplaces and private sales, which means you do not incur the marketplace fees if you have found your buyer already
(2) Escrow.com is a licensed escrow provider, which means you know your funds are held in a non-interest bearing trust account and are not being used to run the company or invest on the market (PayPal uses user balances in this way)
(3) Escrow.com guarantees your payment against credit card chargebacks, meaning that if your buyer later claims that they never received the domain and try to pull their funds back we will face this chargeback on your behalf

Hope this helps,
Jackson

"Just to clarify, this has not been implemented for transactions so this won't be sprung on anyone."
Oh really, time to share.
It was sprung on me alright. Out of the blue.
I was told by Escrow d0t com that funds would be released 2 days ago.
So AFTER a transaction was already completed, this was suddenly sprung on me.

I was sent an email that the transaction is on hold until I submit the docs at the escrow verify link.
I asked Tharp if he could release funds and he replied that I needed to follow the verify instructions.

I am a lawyer who has lived in the same place in America for 15 years and now suddenly am asked to verify and share private id info BEFORE getting funds that Escrow promised to release.
I was getting ready to travel to see my family for Thanksgiving and this has a been a huge awful headache.

And now even though most of your staff appears to be in the PH., you are closed for Thanksgiving and Black Friday. So I get the joy of waiting another 4-5 days to get money released.

Words can't expressed how disappointed I am in your company.

 

[alcy]

Epik may not be the angels you think. Are you aware of this story ?

sounds like a backorder tale.. with decent clarifications.
me I was talking about escrow.

there are no angels around today anymore.. anywhere.
you just gotta take whatever has fewest imperfections

at first sign of problems I'll definitely reevaluate. for now, I have nothing but praises for my couple escrow deals there.

thanks for headsup.

 

[soannoyed]

sounds like a backorder tale.. with decent clarifications.
me I was talking about escrow.

there are no angels around today anymore.. anywhere.
you just gotta take whatever has fewest imperfections

thanks for headsup.

Indeed. Fewest imperfections, that's all I ask.

 

[alcy]

Indeed. Fewest imperfections, that's all I ask.

smart man.
like I said, that is all anyone today can ask for.

 

[wwwweb]

"Just to clarify, this has not been implemented for transactions so this won't be sprung on anyone."
Oh really, time to share.
It was sprung on me alright. Out of the blue.
I was told by Escrow d0t com that funds would be released 2 days ago.
So AFTER a transaction was already completed, this was suddenly sprung on me.

I was sent an email that the transaction is on hold until I submit the docs at the escrow verify link.
I asked Tharp if he could release funds and he replied that I needed to follow the verify instructions.

I am a lawyer who has lived in the same place in America for 15 years and now suddenly am asked to verify and share private id info BEFORE getting funds that Escrow promised to release.
I was getting ready to travel to see my family for Thanksgiving and this has a been a huge awful headache.

And now even though most of your staff appears to be in the PH., you are closed for Thanksgiving and Black Friday. So I get the joy of waiting another 4-5 days to get money released.

Words can't expressed how disappointed I am in your company.

Wait are you stating they have started this process already? Right before they close for 4 days?

Hopefully their president can clarify this, as from his remarks it is something that is slated to be integrated shortly, but not in retrospect?

 

[soannoyed]

Wait are you stating they have started this process already? Right before they close for 4 days?

Hopefully their president can clarify this, as from his remarks it is something that is slated to be integrated shortly, but not in retrospect?

Yes, they are holding my funds instead of releasing them as promised.
So now I am frazzled and have to wait days to go anywhere on this.
After a transaction that somehow took 9 days to complete, I was sent an email on Monday that funds were being released asap. I checked my bank account last evening & contacted Escrow.com support when I didn't see a wire.
Escrow.com chat support told the transaction was now on hold and check email with instructions to verify.
I found an email dated yesterday from Tharp at Escrow and asked him to release the money as I was never notified of of this new requirement before the transaction was already finished.
He only replied for me to to get on uploading ids.
I wasted my evening uploading documents. Still not verified. Again, I am in the same location in the USA and easily verified.
Additionally, I have a bigger transaction that started before all this happened. Buyer already paid, I already pushed domain, but am annoyed to now have so much wrapped up in Escrow.

 

[wwwweb]

Yes, they are holding my funds instead of releasing them as promised.
So now I am frazzled and have to wait days to go anywhere on this.
After a transaction that somehow took 9 days to complete, I was sent an email on Monday that funds were being released asap. I checked my bank account last evening & contacted Escrow.com support when I didn't see a wire.
Escrow.com chat support told the transaction was now on hold and check email with instructions to verify.
I found an email dated yesterday from Tharp at Escrow and asked him to release the money as I was never notified of of this new requirement before the transaction was already finished.
He only replied for me to to get on uploading ids.
I wasted my evening uploading documents. Still not verified. Again, I am in the same location in the USA and easily verified.
Additionally, I have a bigger transaction that started before all this happened. Buyer already paid, I already pushed domain, but am annoyed to now have so much wrapped up in Escrow.

Did you receive the closing statements, how long have you been using escrow.com?

 

[soannoyed]

Did you receive the closing statements, how long have you been using escrow.com?

Using it for a while, no closing statement, support stated in an email that the transaction was completed and
"We have forwarded this transaction to our Payments Team for the disbursement of the payment."
My Dad, SO and uncle all have Escrow accounts for many years and this will be an interesting family talk when I finally make it Thanksgiving dinner.
I am seriously wondering if this was done to me just because my Flippa buyer, although an American citizen, has a very foreign name.
It just seems so weird.
Anyway, I hope Escrow can clarify why it appears to have been implemented midstream.

 

[soannoyed]

I was a vocal critic from day 1 on escrow's takeover even though they hadn't yet gone downhill but I knew it would happen. First Brandon Abbey going was a disaster for unexplained reasons but clearly wasn't compatible with Freelancer. Then getting in hopeless staff, who clearly for some of them English isn't their first language and scripted responses to any inquiry. Now plenty of horror stories are coming out.

I knew this was all going to happen because Freelancer bought out the warrior forum and destroyed it almost immediately in similar fashion. Sacking all the old unpaid mods who did a great job for years without even having the courtesy to inform them before taking away their roles, bringing a ton of useless spammy contributors from certain countries flooding good threads with garbage, constant changes to the site like the feed which is awful, constant login issues etc. etc.

Sad!

And let us not forgot what was touted to be biggest competitor to Flippa, Freelancer's Freemarket d0t com.
Introduced over a year ago, the site went to crickets quickly. I was really excited about that and thought it was such a huge waste to let it fail.

Thanks to all for the alternate escrow companies, really helpful.

 

[Jackson Elsegood]

I hope Escrow can clarify why it appears to have been implemented midstream.

Hi soannoyed,
I've just sent over a PM with the reason for this request for the additional documentation, but in line with our transaction and privacy policy will only discuss this publicly if you are happy for me to.

Jackson

 

[soannoyed]

Hi soannoyed,
I've just sent over a PM with the reason for this request for the additional documentation, but in line with our transaction and privacy policy will only discuss this publicly if you are happy for me to.

Jackson

Thank you Jackson, what you PM'd me makes perfect sense. If I had that that reply from live chat support, I would not have so confused. I also sent you one other question via PM.

 

[soannoyed]

At Transpact.com, Europe's leading escrow company, we continue to handle many, many domain transactions from around the world.

Lowest cost, potentially the most secure, nearly always the fastest, word of mouth means our customers use our service for every transaction as our service is simple, efficient and just works.

For the last eight years we have never really tried to market ourselves hard in the domain space, since until recently the Escrow.com brand was treated religiously by some commentators - with mention of any other escrow service cause for outrage.

But attitudes seem to be changing.

[Disclaimer - I work for Transpact.com - but it is a great company]

That looks great, I love the part where you can write your own terms of service for a transaction. IDK how I haven't heard of you before. Thanks

 

[wwwweb]

Thank you Jackson, what you PM'd me makes perfect sense. If I had that that reply from live chat support, I would not have so confused. I also sent you one other question via PM.

So you got everything straightened out, it was an extra ordinary issue?

 

[soannoyed]

So you got everything straightened out, it was an extra ordinary issue?

Right now it looks to be 100% figured out, I think the issue was partly on my end and I really appreciate Jackson's replies and insight.
Actually, I am glad to get an early preview of what will be implemented soon.
So win-win. Thanks for your insights also, you seem very clued in.